Mosha Lundström Halbert and Aidan Butler’s Magical Icelandic Wedding

Mosha Lundström Halbert, fashion director of Footwear News, was in character when she first met Aidan Butler. “We met at a ’60s Space Age costume party in Toronto in 2008,” Mosha explains. “I was dressed as a Jetson, with a bouffant and a patent leather dress. His British accent was so thick, I couldn’t really understand a word he said, but I was immediately charmed.” Though it was an unusual love at first sight, Mosha and Aidan (CEO of sports technology company GuardLab) went on to date for five years until the pair got engaged in 2013, though they were in no hurry to spread the news, or actually walk down the aisle. The pair waited 24 hours to tell any friends or family of Butler’s sweet, intimate proposal with a simple diamond and rose-gold band on their apartment rooftop in New York. Then they waited two more years before walking down the aisle. “No wedding ideas felt right and we were both so busy with work,” says Mosha. “We finally decided to get married in Iceland on New Year’s Eve, December 31, 2015.”

Mosha is part Icelandic and lived in Reykjavík during her university years, but it wasn’t until a dinner party guest suggested the destination that the two realized it was the perfect choice. “When a friend of ours was over for one of Aidan’s English Sunday roasts, she joked that we should ‘meet in the middle’ [of the Atlantic] and get married in Iceland. Aidan and I took one look at each other and that was it,” she recalls. “A winter wedding on New Year’s Eve in the middle of nowhere was so unusual, and so us.” The groom had never been to Iceland before, and neither had the majority of the 100 friends and family who traveled there from six different continents, including Europe, South America, and Africa. “It seems that everyone had Iceland on their bucket list,” Mosha says. “I felt a great responsibility to act as an ambassador and show them the best of the best.”

That she did. The entire five-day itinerary included activities for guests, like a warrior woman workout and an Icelandic sweater pizza party and, a day before the ceremony, a big blowout Viking-themed party. She notes, “Aidan is a massive Game of Thrones fan [which often shoots in Iceland] and loves costume parties, so we decided to have an Ísland Ínvasion Viking-theme party on Videy Island the night before the wedding with a medieval roast dinner of lamb and cod with Icelandic skyr and berries for dessert.”

Videy—an island off the coast of Reykjavík featuring one of the country’s oldest houses and beautiful vistas of the city—was one of two venues the couple ultimately chose for their celebration. Mosha and Aidan chartered a large, three-level boat to take all of the festively dressed guests in “fur, leather, and horns” to and from the soiree. Mosha remembers, “Once everyone arrived, they were asked to take a shot of Icelandic Brennivín—a very strong liquor also known as Black Death—as their ‘admittance’ to the party,” she recalls. “From there, we had professional Viking performers stage a duel, and during dinner, my mum asked each table to nominate their strongest Vikings to give a toast. They were all hilarious, naughty, and touching.”

The night continued with Mosha emceeing a Viking fashion show for guests with the most outlandish costumes, then dancing to a soundtrack that was strictly Scandinavian—Robyn, Of Monsters and Men, Lykke Li, and lots of ABBA. Mosha’s favorite part of this kickoff celebration, however, came toward the end of the night. “This was one of the evenings when Yoko Ono’s Imagine Peace tower installation was lit on the island. It’s a beautiful outdoor work of art that emits a mesmerizing glow that can be seen citywide. Usually, it’s only lit a few times a year,” she says. “Trekking to it and taking in its beauty, even as the snow and hail came down, was something I will never forget.”

That was only the beginning of the magic, as the next day the bride and groom prepared to make it official. The wedding was a black-tie affair held at the Gamla Bíó opera house, which is an Art Deco–style building with sweeping ceilings, chandeliers, and light wood floors that once housed Iceland’s first cinema. For the ceremony and reception, the bride chose to wear architectural, unique attire. “My mum is a veteran Canadian fashion designer, and I’ve always known that if I ever did get married, she’d make my outfit, which would be ivory and not white.” She adds, “That was the easy part. I am not a bridal person and have never seen a picture or a person in a wedding dress and thought it was something that would suit me or move me. When my mum and I were in Iceland planning over the summer, it finally dawned on us: I’d wear a bodysuit with interchangeable skirts and touches of fur.” Mosha chose a knitted ivory long-sleeve bodysuit from Wolford, which her mother then customized by creating a more open neckline. “I love a good bodysuit as a base for a look,” she says. “I wanted the ceremony and party skirts that would go over it to both have an intermission hemline, which reminded me of Balenciaga and Dior looks from the ’50s and ’60s.” For the wedding, they chose a “stunning, stiff yet airy silk organza” with a train and custom over-the-knee suede boots designed by the fashion director’s friend Paul Andrew. To finish the look for the ceremony, Mosha wore crystal snowflake earrings by Oscar de la Renta (her “something new”) and a garter covered by her mother in Icelandic blue crystals (her “something blue”). Makeup was kept natural and her hair was done up in a traditional braid crown.

The ceremony began with Icelandic violinist Greta Salóme playing “Hoppípolla” by Sigur Rós. Mosha remembers, “We kept the lights dim and there were hundreds of white pillar candles lit everywhere. The groomsmen took the bridesmaids down the aisle and they were carrying black lanterns with candles inside. Just before I entered with my father, Joel, the groomsman raised the chuppah made by my mum from ribbon and branches.” The couple’s two dear friends officiated the Jewish ceremony and Mosha and Aidan exchanged special rose-gold signet rings they found together in England. (They plan to have them engraved with the Butler crest.) As Aidan broke the glass, everyone yelled “mazel tov!” and the newlyweds exited back up the aisle while Salóme played her version of Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros’s “Home.”

Among twinkling candles that filled the ballroom, the reception was set to begin. After an Icelandic “Happy Marriage” toast, guests were treated to a hearty offering of the country’s most traditional foods. “We wanted dinner to be a smorgasbord of Iceland’s finest and for people to have as much or as little as they wanted,” says Mosha. “We served smoked salmon, dill herrings, black holiday breads, and Iceland’s addictive herbed butter. There were blinis and caviar, baked potatoes with skyr, langoustines with garlic herb skyr, grilled cod, baked halibut, double smoked lamb, and beef tenderloin.” She adds, “While everyone was feasting, we had fun Canadian and British music playing: Arctic Monkeys, Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin, and Paolo Nutini for him, Drake and Bieber for me!” After speeches, the dancing commenced and the happy couple ended up taking their first spin around the ballroom to a surprising tune. “Spontaneously, we ended up dancing to a Fetty Wap song,” Mosha says. “That’s just what the DJ was playing when we decided we had to get up and dance. Not very romantic, but hey!”

After their first dance, the couple and their guests prepared to top off the wedding and ring in the New Year all together. “I quickly changed into my sequin skirt, tank bodysuit, and parka,” says Mosha. “After we cut the cake [a traditional Icelandic Vinarterta], we led everyone upstairs to the roof for fireworks. As soon as you exited the lift, we had an ad hoc photo booth set up with props and a professional photographer taking portraits,” she recalls. “It was about 11:15 p.m. and the fireworks were going off like mad. It was the most epic countdown I’d ever seen.” After the clock struck 12:00, the party continued inside with wild party hats from the Danish store Tiger, confetti bombs, caviar and champagne, and a candy and sundae bar. Outside, a snowball fight was under way, complete with glow sticks and, of course, more dancing.

Mosha and Aidan did a “mini-moon” straightaway in south Iceland, riding horses at a friend’s ranch and snowmobiling to the top of a glacier. In the spring, they went to Japan and Bali for a proper “mega-moon.” And to commemorate their wild theme-party, dance-rave, all-out spectacular nuptials in one of the most magical places in the world, the couple got some new ink: “We got tattoos of our wedding logo in Reykjavík to mark the best week of our lives.”